Listening Process book now available to U.S. readers
Episcopal News Service. July 10, 2008 [071008-02]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
"The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality -- A resource to enable listening and dialogue" is now available for sale in the United States.
The 300-page book draws on material collected to enable the ongoing process of "listening to the experience of homosexual persons," to which the bishops of the Anglican Communion committed themselves at the 1998 Lambeth Conference by way of Resolution 1.10.
The Anglican Consultative Council endorsed the Listening Process during its 2005 meeting (via Resolution 12) and also called for a process of mutual listening.
The primates of the Anglican Communion at their February 2007 meeting called (via paragraph 13 in its communiqué) for materials to enable both listening in the terms outlined by Lambeth 1.10 and mutual listening, and called for the materials to be "made more fully available across the Communion for study and reflection."
The Rev. Canon Philip Groves, the facilitator for the Anglican Communion's Listening Process who edited the book, told ENS that the book is intended to fulfill those wishes.
Groves said the book draws upon -- and directs the reader to:
- previously published works;
- resources submitted by the provinces of the Anglican Communion for the listening process; and
- articles and stories specifically submitted to assist the book project.
In addition, Groves said, some of the writers conducted their own research and drew upon their own experience.
A supporting website also offers:
- summaries of each chapter and information about its author(s);
- bibliographies for each of the chapters;
- links to significant resources referenced; and
- contributions submitted specifically to the process.
Groves called the book "a resource to enable ongoing listening and dialogue."
"In some places the listening has not started and we are just now beginning to involve ourselves in mutual listening," he said.
A news release from the book's publisher, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), said the "book offers clear and accurate resources to enable bishops, clergy and laity in the Anglican Communion to listen to God and to one another on the subject of human sexuality."
"It isn't the end of a discussion," Groves said, adding that the book is "substantial enough to get into the issues" while not attempting to have all the answers to the many questions involved in issues of human sexuality.
According to SPCK, the book's aims are:
- to hear the diverse responses offered from across the Anglican Communion;
- to inform and encourage study of the issues in parishes, dioceses and provinces; and
- to increase the individual reader's understanding of diverse perspectives of approaches to homosexuality.
The contributors are women and men who reflect the geographical and theological diversity of the Communion, SPCK's release said. The writers include bishops, clergy and lay people with a wide range of expertise and experience.
Groves noted that the book will be read and used by different audiences, ranging from people in the Episcopal Church which has been discussing the issues of homosexuality for close to 40 years to people in other parts of the world "who have never met an openly gay person."
Aiming to be a sampling of the diversity of voices in the Communion, Groves said that what the book reflects is "not a linear diversity with liberal on one end and conservative on the other."
The book is available from Episcopal Books and Resources here.
It is also due to be available via Amazon here.
In addition, any U.S. bookstore can call publisher Westminster John Knox, which is handling U.S. distribution, at 1-800-523-1631 to order copies.
Summaries of contributions to the Listening Process are also available here.